Within two years, the family was bankrupt and Herman's father ... Despite being considered among the best poems of the 19th century, Battle-Pieces sold a meager 486 copies.

Walt Whitman's ego seemed impervious to criticism, and his self-promotion — writing anonymous reviews of his own book — suggests ... writers and lecturers in America. History has only ...

From the nation’s founding to the Civil War, he argues, religion provided a sacred, even transcendent framework for defining America’s identity and charting its course. In shaping both the ...